"But the evidence was insufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt".
In addition he said it would meet the Justice Department standard that it would be sufficient "to obtain and sustain a conviction by an unbiased trier of fact".
Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.
In his statement, Mr. Holder suggested that the decision not to bring prosecutions should not be seen as a moral exoneration but a sign that the record was not "sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction".
"Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths, the department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt," his statement said.
The report said there was evidence to suggest Mr. Clinton may have known of two fraudulent loans in connection with the Arkansas business deals, but "that evidence was, ultimately, of insufficient weight and insufficiently corroborated to obtain and sustain a criminal prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt".
"The Department of Justice reviewed the evidence and elected to not pursue charges based on the Federal Principles of Prosecution, which include whether the person's conduct constitutes a Federal offense and whether the admissible evidence will be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction," Justice spokesman Peter Carr said.
The panel shared this concern: "The majority strongly questioned whether grants of this size are justified at a time when many investigators, particularly young investigators, are experiencing severe difficulty in obtaining and sustaining funding".
In 2012, US Attorney General Eric Holder looked into CIA interrogation practices overseas but said the evidence was not "sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt".
Bernstein's central argument is that Moody's success as district attorney in obtaining and sustaining convictions related to the brutal flogging of a white couple suspected of adultery by Williamson County Klansmen was the first such legal victory against the Klan in the nation and sparked [End Page 347] its decline in Texas, initiating a reversal of its astonishing rise to political power.
